Charles family complete hat-trick at Horse of the Year Show

Peter Charles, hero of the British show-jumping team’s Olympic gold-medal winning jump-off, scored a more personal achievement when he coached daughter Sienna to finish both first and second in the HorseRadar 128 Pony championships at the Horse of the Year Show.

On ponies, Murkas Matthews Girl and Murkas Flinor Songbird, she was the only rider to break the 32-second barrier in the jump-off, beating Megan Taylor (on Small and Handy) and Michael Whitaker’s son Jack (on Barnee Rubble) into third and fourth.

Sienna, 11, completes a family hat-trick as siblings Harry and Scarlett won this competition, for 12.2hh (128cm) ponies, in the previous two years at the NEC, Birmingham.

Charles, based in Alton, Hampshire and himself grounded through injury, praised his daughter by saying: “This was a great exhibition of how it should be done, though I would be biased, of course.

“She kept up a good rhythm and balance, and her ponies would have drawn a lot of confidence from that.”

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Sienna said that she felt nervous as so many other good riders were in the final. She appreciates her father’s pep-talks before each class but added: “He can go over the top, sometimes.”

The HOYS Saturday programme features championships for children, and invariably feature the latest generation from strong show-jumping families.

Connie Gill, 10, won the Naylors Equestrian 138 (13.hh) championship with Dycott Masterman, the last to go in the jump off and ahead by over a second.

Connie, based in Northallerton, Yorkshire, is a grand-daughter of the 1964 British Olympic team rider David Boston Barker. Her brother Alex, 15, won the Newcomers title for novice ponies the previous day.

Charlotte Ash won the Squibb Group Junior Foxhunter final. The Newcastle rider’s consistency was rewarded this summer by a place in the winning England home international pony team.

At HOYS 14-year-old Charlotte won with Aughnashammer, just fractions of a second ahead of Millie Allen and Tonlyn Bobbys Girl.